ACTIVITY v1.3 (Turbo C)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANSI Activity log for Telegard v1.6e2
Written by Todd Bolitho and Eric Oman
This program is hereby released into the public domain.
No strings, it is truly "freeware."
Enjoy! - Todd & Eric
August 14, 1989
Credit where credit is due:
I wrote an incomplete source code for this thing, but did not
have the Telegard file structures in a 'C' format at the time.
Since I did not know Pascal at that time, I was basically help-
less to complete it without some assistance. I turned to Eric
for help in reading the data into my little "Volkswagen" from
the Telegard files. Eric took the source, and like the true pit
mechanic he is, gave me back this hot little "Porsche"!
Where to Run
ACTIVITY.COM may now be run anywhere as long as the main BBS
directory appears in your path. This is necessary in order for
the program to locate STATUS.DAT. If you do not wish to place
your BBS directory in your path, simply run ACTIVITY.COM from
within the BBS directory. It will then be able find STATUS.DAT.
INSTANT GRATIFICATION!
To see the output of this program, simply place the main BBS
directory in your path, and enter "ACTIVITY". The program will
immediately execute directly on the screen. It will NOT
create any files. You will notice that it defaults to ANSI mode.
To turn off color, try entering "ACTIVITY /T". The "T" stands
for text mode. Of course, technically it's not truly a text mode
since it still uses high-bit characters, but that's still the way
its done - "/T".
Creating Bulletins and Files
ACTIVITY.COM has no COMM routines at all! In simple English
(don't you just HATE programmers who can't speak English?!), this
means you will have to redirect the output of the program to a
file. If you don't know how to do this, don't worry (be happy),
it's easy! "ACTIVITY > [filename]" will take the output normally
sent to the screen and put it into a file for you. If you wish
to make bulletins with this program (easy to do) you may modify
the following simple BATCH file to suit your own system:
ECHO OFF
CLS
ECHO Creating and OVERWRITING "BULLET5.ANS" & "BULLET5.MSG"
ECHO in your "AFILES" directory! Hit <CONTROL-C> to abort.
ECHO.
ECHO.
PAUSE
ACTIVITY > AFILES\BULLET5.ANS
ACTIVITY /T > AFILES\BULLET5.MSG
Remove all but the last two lines if you wish to "CALL" this from
another batch file or run this as a part of a daily event.
Today's Stats, ANSI, Text Mode, and DOORS
There is another way to turn ANSI off or on. You may turn ANSI
off by using the command line argument "/A0". Likewise, you may
turn ANSI on with "/A1" (its really already on). This method
is installed for those purists who do not want to use HD space
for their graphs, and insist on up-to-the-minute accuracy. Fear
not, we have provided well for you. You may execute this program
through doors! Telegard has the ability to pass ANSI flags
through doors. The information is passed ONLY when you the
SysOp, configure the door correctly. The door's "command type"
should be: "DD".
As of version 1.3, ACTIVITY.COM will display "Today, so far:"
stats if "/s" is included on the command line (S=SO FAR).
"@G" is Telegard's MCI for ANSI flags. To pass this informa-
tion, put a "/A@G" into the "MString" parameter and redirect the
output to your com port, or to GATE1 (if that's what you use).
The "MString" might look like this: "ACTIVITY /S /A@G > GATE1"
or this: "ACTIVITY /S /A@G > COM1". Other variations are possi-
ble if you are using another com port. The "/Ax" (where "x" is
equal to "0" or "1") is being filled as needed by the "@G" door
MCI that passes [G]raphics information to the program!
"Part Time BBS SysOps"
I run a "part time" BBS called WARP SPEED. I am constrained to
limited hours due to the fact that my computer is needed for
business during the day. It never seemed fair to me that my
activity logs should list percentages based on 24 hour usage when
I wasn't even able to run it for 24 hours. I solved my own
dilemma by multiplying all my percentages by two. This gave me
an exact representation of my true 12 hour (8pm-8am) activity
percentages. You will happy to know that ACTIVITY.COM will NOT
penalize part time boards. It compensates for the time your
board is not online, and does not count this against you in
computing the percentages and creating the graphs! To trigger
this feature include the command line argument "/Bxx,yy". The xx
& yy are the times (military times) your BBS opens and closes
respectively. For instance, if you open your board at 9 each
night, and close at 6 each morning, you would enter:
"ACTIVITY /B21,06"
This would then print the graph of your system's activity,
including a line at the top stating your 'hours of operation',
just so you can check to make sure you got it right!
Number of Days Shown
ACTIVITY.COM defaults to showing fourteen days (two weeks) on the
graph. Do you wish you could graph activity over a longer period
of time? No problem. Simply include the command line parameter
"/Dxx" where "xx" represents total number of days you would like
to see graphed. Your command line might be this:
"ACTIVITY /D80"
In this case ACTIVITY.COM will present you with a graph going
back eighty days. ACTIVITY.COM always puts the most recent date
at the top, and then graphs backwards in time from there.
Special (Eric's) note: Telegard, before version 1.6e2, would cut
off the system activity records at 97 days into the past. Now,
all such ZLOG data is stored PERMANENTLY, unless you delete the
ZLOG.DAT file. The maximum number of days that may be passed on
the command line to this particular utility is 9,999,999,999 (10
9's, so don't worry about not being able to see everything! I
doubt anyone will run their BBS for over 27 million years!
Alternate Format
ACTIVITY.COM can show your system's activity in an alternate
format that includes the names of the days next to each date, ie.
"Mon Dec 08, 1990". To activate this feature, "/F" is needed on
the command line, like this:
"ACTIVITY /F"
HELP!
Help is available on the command line.
You would enter: "ACTIVITY /H"
More Help
While Eric is certainly capable of answering any questions
concerning this program, it is my understanding that as the
current author of Telegard, he has his hands full answering the
questions on the BBS software itself. Therefore, if you have
questions or problems with ACTIVITY.COM, please logon to:
WARP SPEED
(313) 544-0405
8pm-8am, Nightly
Leave a message to "Music Man" (my handle), and I'll happily
assist you.
Good luck,
Todd Bolitho
Execution method:
ACTIVITY [-Ax] [-Bxx,yy] [-Dxx] [-F] [-T] [>filename.ext]
-Ax : Turn ANSI ON (1) or OFF (0). Default=1.
-Bxx,yy: BBS daily hours in 24-hour time. Default=24 hours a day.
-Dxx: Days to include in graph. Default=14.
-F : Format date in "Day Mon DD, YYYY" format.
-H : This help display (or "-?", "?")
-T : Toggle ANSI OFF. Same effect as "-A0"
>filename.ext : re-direct output to a file